They depended greatly on the North for their industries and factories, because they had very few. They also opposed federal spending on internal improvements and they wanted no tariffs. Even despite having a somewhat weak economy, the South wanted to gain their independence to become their own country, and to have their own way of life, which included slavery as legal. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, the South thought that they would have no voice in the government, considering that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery. In hopes of being their own country, the South had no intention of fighting a war. However, before the war started, the South was unwilling to compromise. They thought that slavery should be allowed in all of the territories. They disagreed to the Missouri Compromise and to parts of the Compromise of 1850. Many felt that these compromises were unfair and biased. The South felt that their way of life and views on slavery were right and just. They turned to what they thought was their only choice: seceding from the Union. This enrage the North, which was one of the main causes of the Civil War.…
Southerners opposed that because they think they had a right to slaves in the new…
There was always a constant controversy with the issue of fugitive slaves throughout the time of the Civil War. Major Butler asked the question, “are they free?” and if so, “what do I do with them?” (Doc A). Many people ended up purchased slaves to work in the war as servants, cooks and soldiers. However, even though the Union only started allowing African Americans to fight in the war one month before it had ended, once they did so, the course of the war began to shift. At this point the North began to realize the dedication and heart the African Americans put into fighting for their freedom. After seeing this, the Union decided to make the abolition of slavery a primary goal of the Civil War (Doc B). By allowance of African Americans to fight in the war, the Civil War was changed from a battle of political disagreements and state power into a war of freedom and abolition of slavery (Doc D). This shift in the war was very apparent once the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation was made. Although the Proclamation only freed slaves in areas of rebellion, I made a shift in purpose clear to both the North and the South. At first Lincoln was more of a neutral party to the whole slavery issue, but once he saw the eagerness of the blacks, it persuaded him to make the promise of freedom (Doc C). In the end, the willingness of the blacks to fight in the…
The African Americans who supported were encouraged by the war’s confusion. In addition to that were also led by the conversations of their masters talking about the increase of freedom among black Americans. This gave majority of the slaves the courage to fight for their rights, but others were discouraged. Due to the Native Americans (Indians) continuing to treat them as slaves. Another reason some African Americans didn’t was because neither congress nor states were excited to see them free.…
The mid 1800’s, Americans obviously pushed around the Mexicans. In 1821, Mexico gained its freedom from Spain. The young nation was about the same size as the United States, and the U.S. government immediately developed a lust for Mexico’s land. Arguments arose, leading to the Mexican-American war. Like most wars, it had its supporters and critics. Looking back at the evidence a couple of centuries later, the United States did not have a valid and compelling reason to declare war on Mexico because they invaded Mexico, they craved Mexico’s land, and the U.S. disrespected Mexico.…
America was not justified in going to war with Mexico for these three reasons: James K. Polk provoked the war, territory wasn’t decided and Polk sent troops into Texas. The key argument that is summarized here is that America was not justified in going to war with Mexico. In conclusion America was greatly changed during the war with Mexico and it should never be…
A huge contributor to this war was the Lone Star Republic of Texas. Mexico refused to recognize the annexation of Texas. Mexico even stated that if the United States were to admit Texas to the Union it would be considered an act of war. The fact that Mexico refused to recognize the annexation of Texas, and threatened to go to war over it shows one of the justifications that the war was neither unjustified nor unprovoked.…
Many attempts have been made to rationalize the war as just and right. Polk claimed that the United States had been provoked into war by Mexico, and that what motivated him to go to war was, "the strong desire to establish peace with Mexico on liberal and honorable terms . . ." Pulitzer prize winner Justin H. Smith claimed that Mexico was simply unable to understand or appreciate the goodwill and righteousness of her northern neighbor. These and other rational for the Mexican war are simply cover-ups for the truth. The Mexican-American War was a premeditated act of aggression on the part of the U.S. government, perpetrated upon a weak, defenseless people.…
The war with Mexico came at a time when much of the country had strong feelings of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is the belief that fate had preordained the US to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and from Canada to the Rio Grande. “the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles….it shall be a hemisphere – its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens…” (Document 1). This ideal had strong influence and was one reason that there was so much popular support for the US expansion west. This ideal, while nationalistic, did not give Polk the right to go into Mexico and seize land which was rightfully theirs. The US vision of manifest destiny helped to win the public’s support for the Mexican war (Doc 2). Yet the public was misled by this sense of Manifest Destiny and those that did support it supported an unjust war.…
Those who supported slavery were for the most part southerners. Senator John C. Calhoun states that slavery is a “positive good”. He says that through slavery, the conditions of the races improved physically, morally, and intellectually and the two races of black and white were brought together. Calhoun also says that the living conditions for the slaves were good and they were taken care of. But in reality, the slaves were living in shacks fearing for their lives and hoping not to get beaten by their slave owner after a long hard day of working in the blistering sun on the plantations (document 2). Another man against the abolition of slavery is Chancellor Harper. According to Harper, the emancipated slaves would harm the economy of the United States and Europe. This is because he believed that the free laborers would strike against working for higher pays and they wouldn’t do their jobs, thus affecting the trade. The slaves did get paid but very low amounts compared to the hard work that they put into their jobs (document 3). Those were some arguments of people who supported slavery and believed that it should be continued.…
Another cause of the war is land. Not only did the British go against the U.S. foreign policy of neutral rights, but so did the French. Both nations underwent a violation of this, however the Americans insisted on fighting only Britain. President Madison did not keep up with Jefferson's ongoing policy of remaining out of war. The War Hawks wanted to obtain more land especially British controlled Canada and Spanish-Florida to add more states to the Union. Popular opinion in the South and West clearly favored the conflict. The reason why America wanted this is because it would deny the British the Indians on the West to incite, hence saving lives. Also, it would control and deny the marauding bands of Indians, thieves, and run away slaves in the Spanish Sanctuary in Florida. John Randolph also expresses, "agrarian cupidity, not maritime right, urges the war," has much validity to it. Randolph mentions U.S. went to war was because it wanted a farming society, having strong desires for wealth, as opposed to their rights at sea.…
Can’t decide if the United States going to war with Mexico was justified or not justified? It can be a struggle to decide. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the nineteenth century. Spain controlled most of Central America. Due to the extremely low population for such territorial extension, Mexico relaxed its immigration policies, as a result, allowing American settlers to help populate the northern territories. Their conditions to settle were self-explanatory. Now what do think? The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico. The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico because, of the Manifest Destiny, Mexico robbed the United States citizens, and the U.S. wanted to extend slavery and land.…
Conflict erupted due to the point of high tension between the continuous dissension over the critical issue. Lincoln supported emancipation as a war measure for the beginning of the war in order to gather support for the Union. Lincoln declared that he will side with border states who abolish slavery. He hoped that support from these critical states would play a decisive role in the war. Emancipation was still seen as a war measure because there was significant opposition from the conservative supporters. However, Lincoln explains to a religious group that emancipation would actually restore legitimacy for the Union in Europe, as the consensus there was set on an antislavery sentiment. This would prevent European dependence on textiles and undermine King Cotton diplomacy. In order to set a moral framework, Jefferson Davis explains that emancipation would hurt slaves and the basis of his argument was that slavery was a justifiable evil. Lincoln still doesn’t fully oppose Davis by taking the position of abolitionism. Instead, he viewed emancipation only as a war measure and doesn’t extend full rights. Davis views it as an immoral act as it would create revolts and a race war in the South. The issue with compromise positions was that they were mostly ineffective in containing slavery in the South. Instead, they created dissent throughout the congress, making the critical issue worse. A motive…
Opposition was felt by both the north and south. In the North, the opposers felt the Southerners possessed the right to be independency and felt the war affected them negatively. In the South, the opposers did not want a war or a Union advance on the newly declared Confederacy. All the opposers didn’t see a positive side to having the war. Both side also had people that just wanted peace between the sides.…
Many people, especially those in the south, believed that slavery should continue. Slave owners in the south were all for slavery continuing because it was much cheaper than having to hire laborers to harvest their crops and fields. Many people in the north were supporters of slavery too, because they faced major profits in…